1971 K10 Stepside - Getting a Roller Roadworthy

[pjmoreland]

Put the transmission on the jack sideways for clearance, rolled it under the truck, and then flipped it upright.

[pjmoreland]

Removed one fender and the radiator support to make room for installing the engine without having to remove the hood. Set the engine in place and attached it loosely to the crossmember.

[pjmoreland]

Crawled back underneath and mated the transmission to the bellhousing.

[pjmoreland]

Installed the transmission crossmember and transfer case frame bracket loosely. Then I attached the transfer case to the transmission and frame bracket.

The next step will be to drill holes for the engine crossmember and then fabricate an adapter to allow the transmission to be attached to its crossmember.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Pure Steel Poetry.

OBTW Happy St Patrick's Day, PJ.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Pure Steel Poetry.

OBTW Happy St Patrick's Day, PK.

Ha! Thanks.

[pjmoreland]

Spent a good portion of the day making a batch of Dummy Filler Necks. I was able to spend a few hours this afternoon/evening working on designing an adapter bracket for attaching the NV4500 to the stock transmission crossmember. I printed out some paper templates so I can trace the patterns onto steel.

Installing an NV4500 where an SM465 would have been originally has ended up pushing the engine forward by almost exactly 2". This is with the transfer case in the stock location.

SM465 Body Length = 12"
NP205 Adapter Length = 6.75"
Total = 18.75"

NV4500 + Tail Housing Length = 20.75"

20.75" - 18.75" = 2.0"

[Ol Blue K20]

It's gonna be running soon. I really like the printed patterns, they look sharp.

[loudchevy]

That's a ton of heavy metal to be moving around solo. Nice work!

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

It's gonna be running soon. I really like the printed patterns, they look sharp.

I hope to get it running soon. All of the wiring has to be redone. It was a complete mess. All of the harnesses are in a pile in the corner of my garage. There are lots of cut and missing wires. I plan to repair all of the damage.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

That's a ton of heavy metal to be moving around solo. Nice work!

It was a bit sketchy standing the transmission back up on the jack under the truck. It worked out alright though. It would be nice if that transmission jack were lower profile when all the way down.

[pjmoreland]

Fabricated the NV4500 adapter bracket this evening. Cut the pieces out of 3" x 3/16" bar stock.

[pjmoreland]

More photos

[pjmoreland]

Tested it on the truck, and it fits well. Sprayed some paint on it.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Nice.

[loudchevy]

Nicely fab'd

[pjmoreland]

Thanks, guys.

[Ol Blue K20]

Very nice!

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Very nice!

Thank you. As usual, some of the welds look nicer than others.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Thank you. As usual, some of the welds look nicer than others.

I have that same thing happen to me as well

[pjmoreland]

I was busy with other things this evening, but I had a few minutes before bedtime to finish up a small task I've been working on for a while. I've been wanting a set of original '68 or older door locks for this truck because they have a small feature that was eliminated in later years. There is a subtle detent or click that stops the key in the straight position so that it can be removed easily without having to search for the right position. A friend bought a wrecked '68 recently. It was missing the key, so he got the code off one of the door locks, and I reached out to LockDoc who made a key for me along with building a glovebox lock that works with the same key (thanks, Leon!). My friend was having difficulty getting the ignition lock out, so I went over there this evening, and after lots of wiggling it popped out. It was caked up with graphite sludge.

I just got done installing the locks on the truck. I'm guessing it has been a long time since this truck had fully functioning locks. Very satisfying!

Here's a video that shows the little detent/click that the older door locks have.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cJSf-_FjHKI?feature=shared

['68OrangeSunshine]

Are the Doorlock and Ignition Key the same cut?

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Are the Doorlock and Ignition Key the same cut?

Yes, and the same key code is stamped on all three lock cylinders.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Yes, and the same key code is stamped on all three lock cylinders.

Cool.

[pjmoreland]

The transmission and engine are fully bolted down now. After installing the transmission adapter bracket, I worked on drilling new holes in the frame rails for the engine crossmember. It was quite challenging to get the holes in the right places. Here's how it went:

I started by installing the crossmember in the stock holes so I could measure the distance from the engine tower holes to the motor mounts. It was right at 2".

I then put marks on the bottoms of the frame rails that were 2" forward of the stock crossmember holes. The frame rails curve inward toward the front, and the crossmember holes are not inline with each other, so taking this into account was challenging.

I started by drilling two small holes at the marks, and then I slid the crossmember forward until its holes were lined up as best as possible with the small holes. They were quite a bit off though, so I used a pick to scribe the locations of the crossmember holes on the upper surface of the lower frame rail.

I then used a carbide burr in a Dremel to open up the little holes until they were the right size and lined up with the scribed marks.

Drilling the holes for the engine towers in the tops of the frame rails was much easier because I could use the lower holes as somewhat of a guide. The holes have to scoot over 1/8" relative to the curving frame rails to be directly forward of the original holes. I drilled the top holes based on that and they came out exactly right.

All of the bolts slid into the frame holes easily.

I had some 2K epoxy paint i needed to use up, so I painted a couple of parts.